Some aspects of coupled FEBEM analysis of underground openings

Abstract The finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM) are two well established numerical methods used for the analysis of underground openings. The advantages of both the methods are utilized by adopting FEBEM in which finite elements are coupled with boundary elements. A coupling procedure is presented in this paper. In using FEBEM, the effect of the location of interface boundary between finite element and boundary element regions, effect of Poisson's ratio and effect of stress ratio are discussed. It is shown that Poisson's ratio and stress ratio have significant effect on the accuracy of the results. Different discretization schemes are discussed to study their effect on accuracy and computation time. The use of different material properties in the FE region is presented. A comparative study is made with FEM for all the cases. It is shown that use of FEBEM is more advantageous than FEM.